Phils Walk Off for Series Split With Reds

After four hours and 24 minutes of baseball, the Phils came back from a 3-0 deficit to win the game 4-3 in 11 innings. Despite missing opportunity after opportunity to score the winning run, they finally got it home in the 11th on a walk off by John Mayberry Jr. Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto both pitched ‘OK’; Hamels gave up three runs, while Cueto only gave up two. Neither pitched past the sixth inning. Here are some notes:

MAKING CUETO WORK

Last night, 27 Phillies faced Bronson Arroyo, who threw 86 pitches over eight innings. That is an average of just 3.19 pitches per batter, an extremely low number.

However, tonight the Phillies faced Cueto 23 times, and saw 111 pitches, or an average of 4.83 pitches per batter. Still though, they weren’t able to score any runs off Cueto, as he was relieved in the sixth. His earned runs came after he left the game. Here’s his final line:

5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

For the Phillies, Cole Hamels had a similar outing. He pitched pretty well until the sixth inning, which ended up being his last inning. Here’s his line:

6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

SOLID NIGHT FOR BROWN

Domonic Brown had another solid game, as he collected two hits, including a huge double in the sixth that set up two runs, and a single in the eighth that led to him scoring the tying run on a sac fly by Jimmy Rollins. He also had some of the best at-bats of the game. He did ground into a double play to end the ninth inning, but hey–Dom can’t do it all.

GAME NOTES:

The Phillies now hold sole possesion of third place for the first time since April 12, 6 games into the season.

The Phillies welcome the NL East leading Nationals to Citizens Bank Park tomorrow at 7:05 PM, as Kyle Kendrick (6-9, 4.20 ERA) squares off with Edwin Jackson (7-8, 3.69 ERA).

0 Comments

Jon – were we watching the same game?
D Brown came up 3 times with the bases loaded. The first time he struck out to end the inning the second time (as you said) he grounded into a double play to end the 9th and the third time he hit into a force out in the bottom of the 11th.. he left 9 men on base all by himself and this was a solid game?

Look, enough of this wishy washy stuff, we all want him to do good but he has not earned a pass –

Howard scored a run when he walked. Is he responsible for that run scoring? You’re logic lacks reason, who plated Howard? Or, say Mini mart ground into a force out the batter who was on first is out at second now, Martinez is on first. The batter behind Martinez hits a triple. Does Martinez get credit?

The Phils had 21 baserunners last night. 21. And yet only hits by Rollins, Mayberry, Nix and Mr. Kratz mattered the most.

You have a point — I should have said “most responsible”. What’s more difficult to do — hit a double, or hit a fly ball? The fly balls would not have done anything if Brown hadn’t hit the double to put himself and Howard in scoring position (most other runners would have scored). To object to calling a 2 for 6 night “solid”, when both hits were instrumental in scoring runs, simply because he wasn’t 3-6 or 4-6, just seems delusional to me.

Underlying all this is the basic fallacy that hitting with runners in scoring position is a repeatable “skill”. It’s not. Players’ performace with RISP goes up and down from one year to the next, but over time, most players’ stats with RISP (avg, slugging pct, etc.) look pretty much like their overall stats. There are exceptions such as Howard, who faces a less challenging situation with men on base (no shift).

And regarding the 21 baserunners, the problem was not the Phillies didn’t hit well with RISP, on the contrary 4 for 14 (.286) is better than any team’s average with RISP. The problem was that only 3 of the 21 baserunners were on extra base hits.

i don’t know if it was solid or not . there was good parts, and bad parts. but the main part was a W and that’s the best part! i’ll take 100 of them next year! and that fransden is one scrappy dude! i like scrappy. that stuff rubs off on the team. and the pen looked good tonight.

Stats aside Schekman from the the casual oberver, it just appears the Phils strand a ton of runners. I wonder if you could filter out the stats in a way. To give what the strand rate is when the Phillies are trailing or in tie ball games. It will appear to me it would be low. I can almost best that they seem to pile on runs when they have a lead. But, fail to get them runners home more oft than not when they are tied or losing. Hope this post makes sense…lol…

The team with the second best record in the majors was also on the field last night. Why is it always about what the Phils didn’t do? Shouldn’t we sometimes give their pitchers credit for getting out of jams? It’s what our guys did many times last year. They have a very good team and we beat them!

Therearlier this year when the Phils were something 5 for their last 40 with RISP, and had lost more games than they won out of the stretch (can’t remember the W-L), and the Reds won something like 6 out of 7 with a near identical RISP ratio. Failure to execute with RISP looks larger as a shortcoming when the other facets of the game result in losses.

The 2010 club was criticized for failing to hit with runners on, and yet they came close to playing in the LCS. And the primary target of the criticism wqas Jayson Werth, who was somewhere around .200 (BA) on the whole, saved by a late season push, and his overall numbers were pretty decent.

I was at the game and it was TORTURE, not a “good game”. Firstly the Reds only used about 4 of their regular starters so their lineup was relatively poor. Cairo and Valdez starting should tell you enough about that.

So many pitches and no one worked fast.

Brown’s game is on and off. His swing on the first pitch WITH THE BASES LOADED in the 11th was truly ugly. Why in the hell was he swinging at a low outside pitch? His job was to elevate the ball into the outfield or walk. Instead a weak grounder to first allowing a force at first. He had a nice double earlier but he has a lot to learn.

Best part of the game was that the Phils got three sac flys. It was beautiful to bring those runners at third home.